mid-day editorial: Let's divorce the triple talaq system

Apr 20, 2017, 06:03 IST
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mid-day correspondent

Even as the debate around triple talaq rages on, a report in this paper has highlighted how the triple 'T' is being misused across the country

Even as the debate around triple talaq rages on, a report in this paper has highlighted how the triple 'T' is being misused across the country. Women are, quite literally, being thrown out of homes. This amounts to exploitation of a vulnerable section of the society.

In this report, a Mira Road resident thrashed his wife and threw a note at her with the three words "talaq, talaq, talaq" on it. Significantly, this report comes as the decibel level is increasing in the debate to scrap the practice altogether. Those supporting a ban on it have mentioned numerous cases where talaq has been pronounced over the phone, or sent via postcards. While it's a misuse of triple talaq, there is a case of abolishing triple talaq itself.

Why should we have triple talaq at all, which gives an individual unilateral power? It also encourages wildly oscillating views from so-called sch­olars. It is time to remove our heads from the sand and stop pretending like everything is okay with the practice. Why not look at it through the prism of human rights? It is a matter that concerns the society. and though one may not directly fight for abolishing the practice, we can support those fighting to abolish triple talaq, or even help create awareness about the injustice of it. If we, all of us, stakeholders in the society choose to distance ourselves from the issue, we feed into the twisted logic of political leaders who profess to safeguard the community and want these outdated and cruel practices to remain because it suits their motive.

Today, there is a real push to abolish the triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy in the Muslim community. Let us be aware about these concepts, for information is power, and speak out against it to give more power to those at the forefront of the fight to do away with these practices, beginning with the triple 'T'.